Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) is the funny-guy who
is back in action (kind-of) with yet another one of these preposterous
and
silly-natured (sort-of) comedies. In Johnny
English Reborn the famed spy must return to his MI-7 roots in order
to deflate
the dastardly plans that have been crafted by international assassins
attempting to take out a world leader in order to spin the world into
some sort
of circus frenzy. Not literally... but
they do want to cause a lot of animalistic chaos for everyone involved.
(Note
to Self: How is that Punny?)

This
sequel film to the successful Johnny English (2003)
begins by
revealing that the Johnny English master spy had retired from his spy
background. In these opening moments there is little doubt he will
return. We
are quickly taken to a scene in Tibet and are shown the retiree English
going
through intense training that involves moving giant rocks, taking
intense kicks
to bodily-function parts, and other odd things. It sets the stage for
English's
return to his ol' suave roots and he undergoes his new mission of
stopping the
assassination squad bent on eliminating a political leader. He
undergoes his
return to the field with the help of someone new, Agent Tucker (Daniel
Kaluuya),
who admires English and wants to be able to follow in his footsteps.
The
beautiful and charming Kate Sumner (Rosamund Pike) also helps out by
keeping
him in check along the wobbly action-packed way.

The
storyline didn't exactly create a lot of surprising
or thoroughly engaging elements. The basic premise was something that
has been crafted
more-or-less repeatedly in spy spoofs and that certainly doesn't help
to sell
tickets to audiences. Bad guys? Check. Good guys? Double check. Attempt
to mess
up a governmental system and a need for the super spy extraordinaire to
stop
the bad guys? Yep. It's all here and it is wrapped up nice and tidy
with those
neat little ribbon-bows you might find on gift-wrapped presents. It's a
good
enough setup for an interesting experience but its not exceptional or
spellbinding plot material at any moment and with these scenarios the
quality
really depends upon the quality of writing and the overall execution of
said material.

The main
reason anyone will want to decide to check
out these comedic outings with Rowan Atkinson isn't particularly
complex either
- it's because he's a humorous comedic actor with good physical-comedy
chops
that have been well honed over all these years of performing. He
understands
how to make us laugh with a silly expression or routine. It's not
surprising
that Atkinson continues to have a loyal fan-base. His Mr. Bean
character was perhaps
the most bizarre character in the history of British television (we
might as
well let the debate commence) and his slightly less-odd but still
confounding
Johnny English is a well-likable, unbelievable, and ultimately charming
goofball who keeps finding himself in increasingly strange scenarios.

Director
Oliver Parker (An Ideal Husband, The
Importance of Being Earnest) seems to be a decent fit for this kind
of
material, as surprising as that may be given some of his previous
films. He
doesn't have a particularly graceful directing eye - many sequences
look
chaotic, disheveled, and disorganized but the emphasis on comedy is
well-enough
balanced that it overshadows the negatives. The music by Ilan Eshkeri
is
standard action-mode fare but it works as appropriate background
material. The
editing is less praise-worthy. Even with a huge chunk of the film left
on the
cutting room floor Editor Guy Bensley leaves in a lot of material that
feels incomplete
and worthy of additional trimming.

Johnny
English Reborn is a
mixed bag. A lot of the
jokes are fairly childish and immature. It's a film that is never
capable of
making jokes that don't feel as though they were done before. The humor
will
manage to appeal to fans of the first Johnny
English, though it is difficult to say whether or not the film has
any legs
to bring in new audience members. Though something should be said about
the
fact the film feels perfect for 10
year olds...

The
Blu-ray:

Video:

Johnny
English Reborn arrives
on Blu-ray with a
visually impressive 1080p High Definition presentation which preserves
the
2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio. The cinematography by Danny Cohen has a
reasonably pleasant feel to it and with clean and crisp imagery that
manages to
enhance the gizmo-gadgetry aspects that are so appealing in spy films.
It doesn't
have flawless picture quality as there is some slight softness is
certain
scenes. Serious Rowan Atkinson fans will have a blast anyway and be
delighted
by the strong presentation.

Please
Note: The
images featured
in this review are from the DVD edition in this Blu-ray/DVD/Digital
Copy combo release.

Audio:

The
audio is presented with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
for the English language track. The presentation calls for some
decidedly sonic
surround usage and sound effects that reflect the action on-screen. The
positive is that the sound quality is excellent with dialogue that was
well
reproduced and easy to understand. The downside is that while there are
some
solid effects used I was a little underwhelmed with the track when
comparing it
to other action films utilizing DTS-HD-MA on the Blu-ray format. It is a good enough mix, but it doesn't
exactly stand out as a showstopper. Fans will likely feel the crisp and
clean
mix works well considering the style of film (there is a larger
emphasis on
comedy than on action anyway) but it doesn't exactly make one feel
entirely
enthused.

Extras:

Wowza!
There are tons of bonus materials on this
release. Certainly a lot more than I was anticipating given the quality
of the
film itself and its somewhat average box-office run. I expect anyone
who
enjoyed the film will be pleased by the amount and quality of extras.

Working
with Rowan (3:55),
Gadgets (3:16), English in Hong
Kong (5:03), and The Wheelchair Chase (5:26).

This
combo-pack release also contains a DVD and
Digital Copy for portable viewing of Johnny
English Reborn.

Final
Thoughts:

To
parents: I'd strongly suggest Johnny English Reborn be
used as rental
fare to share with the young ones and to look at the possibility of
enjoying a
few laughs along the way as the added bonus of viewing it with them.
It's a
cute and technically harmless production but it doesn't aim for
greatness (but
at the same time it never reaches total boredom or snooze-fest
territory). This
spy-spoof outing presents simple comedic fun to pass the hours away and
nothing
more. To non-parents: Any Rowan Atkinson fans out there? Yes! You'll
enjoy Johnny English Reborn well enough as
rental material. Give it a chance and you'll have a couple hours' worth
of fun.